AntiSec pwns ManTech over government links

Trent Nouveau, 30th July 2011

Anonymous hackers associated with the growing AntiSec movement have targeted a cyber security company known as ManTech.

The Virginia-based corporation boasts quite a number of lucrative contracts with prominent government entities, including the FBI, DIA, NSA, DHS, DoJ, NATO and various branches of the U.S. military.

"It remains to be seen how much longer the public will accept how completely incompetent law enforcement agencies are spending their citizens money to fund even more incompetent federal contractors," the hackers wrote in a communiqué.

"So we begin by releasing 400MB of internal data from ManTech. This gives some insight on how they are wasting the tax payer's money. Most of the documents in this first batch are related to NATO who, you may recall, made some bold claims regarding Anonymous earlier this year."

As expected, the AntiSec activists also reiterated their lack of concern over the potential threat of arrest or detention by law enforcement officials.

"[Remember], the director of the U.S. Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT), Randy Vickers, already resigned from his post, without providing an explanation. Let us provide you with one: Mr. Vickers realized that he is on the losing side of this war. A war that should never have been started in the first place.

"Not only because the enemy was vastly underestimated and misjudged completely but even more because it is fought against innocent citizens who simply chose to protest against the grievance of the government. You cannot win this war and the sooner you realize this and call for peace, the sooner we can put an end to this and solve the problems of this world together."

Meanwhile, Sophos security expert Chester Wisniewski noted that while the leaked information isn't particularly sensitive, it does obviously embarrass ManTech by implying the company is incapable of delivering quality security services.

"[Still], members of Anonymous should be aware that playing defense is significantly more difficult than playing offense. It was only one week ago that their own attempt at a social network, AnonPlus, was hacked.

"[Obviously], this doesn't change the fact that it is disappointing a specialist security contractor was breached by AnonyLulz, but unfortunately being the attacker is considerably easier than being the defender when it comes to online security."

Unsurprisingly, ManTech remained tight-lipped about the hack and extract operation, but seemed to confirm the digital infiltration by posting an official statement about the recent "cyber attacks."

"However, given current publicity, we wish to assure our customers, employees, shareholders and business partners that ManTech takes seriously recent reports of a cyber threat, and we responsibly and actively address all sources of information about threats to our information and assets and those of our customers."